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Reckoning with Hate: Faithful Routes Away from the Charlottesville Rally

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ARTICLES: CONCEPTUAL Reckoning with Hate: Faithful Routes Away from the Charlottesville Rally Carol Grace Hurst Ripples of both alarm and hope regarding United States race relations have circled out from Charlottesville, Virginia subsequent to violent demonstrations held on August 11 and 12, 2017. This article tells less well-known stories out of Charlottesville, recounting faith groups’ prayers and vigils through the summer of 2017, and one Christian social work educator’s experience of witness with her faith community during the August 12th rally. The article also highlights several loving and creative responses that individuals, groups, and organizations made on August 12th and in the subsequent year after the rally to assist the injured, address the trauma, and begin to rebuild a sense of safety and normalcy in the community. The unfolding Charlottesville story offers an anti-racist case study of one community’s efforts under extreme conditions to reconcile and heal racist wounds. Case Study Context Scenes of violence from the college town of Charlottesville, Virginia burst into national and international awareness in the summer of 2017. Earlier that year, the Charlottesville City Council had voted to take down two statues of confederate generals erected during the Jim Crow era from city parks (Heaphy, 2017). The vote to remove these statues, due to their ties to slavery and white supremacy, could be seen as an effort to name the racism of the past and move toward a new day. The plan to take the statues down sparked controversy. It was soon blocked in court. It also drew attention of white supremacist groups organizing online, including the Ku Klux Klan, Vanguard America, the Daily Stormer, and other constituencies Social Work & Christianity, Vol. 47, No. 1 (2020), 15–30 DOI: 10.34043/swc.v47i1.132 Journal of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work 16 SOCIAL WORK & CHRISTIANITY of the political “alt-right.” These groups were strongly opposed to removal of the statues, seeing such as an assault on their white heritage (Heaphy, 2017, p. 1). The statues’ controversy and the parks, with the silent stone sentinels standing in a particular public place, provided a stage for the performance of strongly-held convictions about proper race relationships. Concerns with American traditions of free speech, gun ownership, and faith in the public square have riveted attention on Charlottesville. Racist rhetoric espoused on the more hidden virtual platforms of the internet flashed into the open, drawing answering counter-protest voices, with the media broadcasting these contending voices to a broad audience. Several small protests occurred in the months after the Council decision, culminating with the events of August 12, 2017. During the Unite the Right Rally, three people lost their lives, 19 counter-protesters were injured in a car attack, and an additional 14 persons were hurt in other assaults (Heaphy, 2017). The Rally events unfolded with passionate enactment of free speech from starkly opposed parties. Clergy and others of faith stepped onto this public stage as well, holding hands, praying, and proclaiming belief in a Creator who loves each precious child of God, red, brown, yellow, black, and white. This narrative does not purport to tell the definitive truth about these painful Charlottesville events. It is offered, rather, only as part of the composite story. The article is based on news reports, and the experience of one local social work educator who felt called to peaceful worship as witness with her faith community during the chaotic day of the Rally. Perspectives from key informants from Charlottesville community organizations and churches were sought afterward to document community responses in the aftermath of the event. Responding to the crisis precipitated by the Unite the Right Rally is an ongoing effort. The author’s participant-observer perspective intends to capture witness to love, nonviolence, and community resilience that is part of the Charlottesville story as much as attention- catching discord and violence. The Charlottesville community experience is a case study of reckoning with racism in the present day that demonstrates the complexity of finding paths to reconciliation and the restoration of friendly, peaceable relationships. On Sunday, August 13, 2017, the day after the Unite the Right Rally, the Rev Elaine Ellis Thomas (2017) preached a sermon based on Matthew 14:22-43 at St. Paul’s Memorial Episcopal Church in Charlottesville. This passage tells the story of Jesus walking on the water and reassuring his disciples who fear for their lives during a storm. Peter gets out of the boat wanting to come to Jesus on the water, but he flounders. Jesus says to Peter, “Oh you of little faith, why do you doubt?” It was suggested, in light of the convulsion of violence in Charlottesville, that Jesus told Peter to stay in the boat with his community of people, rather than try to walk heroically on the water. There is work on a boat to keep it afloat, work to trim the sails, RECKONING WITH HATE 17 to bail the water, to make sure the boat that carries everyone is in good condition. Ellis Thomas (2017) reminded her congregation that when we are in the boat together, even in stormy water, we don’t have to be afraid. Faith calls us to the work of creating justice and equity for all God’s people. If we are in this boat together, we can survive the worst storms that the world might throw at us and get to the other side together. Fascist and Anti-fascist Groups Focus on Statues’ Controversy In May 2017, Richard B. Spencer, a self-described “white nationalist,” joined local anti-statue removal activist Jason Kessler in organizing a small protest at the Lee Statue. The images of burning tiki-torches reminiscent of historical Ku Klux Klan terrorism, spread alarm in Charlottesville. Spencer, a graduate of Charlottesville’s University of Virginia but not a local resident, advocates ethnic cleansing and the building of an ethno-state for whites of European descent (Appelbaum & Lombroso, 2016). In recent years, Spencer garnered attention when controversy over his extreme views prompted protest on different college campuses at Spencer speeches. His ideology is Neo-Nazi; supporters use German Nazi-inspired language and symbols, as well as the straight-armed Nazi salute. Anti-fascist groups, also called “Anti-fa” (Bray, 2017), have focused resistance to white nationalist ideas very personally on Mr. Spencer as a leader of a new fascist movement that Spencer calls the “Alt-right.” A video of Mr. Spencer being punched in the face by an anonymous, masked person, in the crowd at the Trump Inauguration in January 2017, spread virally on the internet (Tiffany, 2017). This meme, set to different musical tunes and with different rhymes, epitomizes the anti-fascist movement tactic to expose Neo-Nazi individuals to public censure for their ideas. Nazism is viewed as an ideology far too dangerous to tolerate as part of acceptable civil discourse (Bray, 2017; Gluckman, 2017). “Punching Nazis” has been a tactic of some Antifa groups (Marshall, 2017). Antifa are criticized for this tactic because petty violence may escalate into more violence from white supremacists and opens anti-racist resistance to criticism on moral grounds (Oppenheimer, 2017; Signal, 2017). Furor over the right-wing ideologies identified as fascist, and the left-wing resistance movement identified as anti-fascist, would figure prominently in what came to pass in Charlot- tesville. With both movements organizing on-line and demonizing one another, many from outside Charlottesville traveled to the Rally expecting to meet violence from the other group (Vice News, 2017). Response of Faith Groups during Summer of Hate Opinions diverged on how to respond to additional white supremacist groups planning to protest in Charlottesville. A Ku Klux Klan group from 18 SOCIAL WORK & CHRISTIANITY North Carolina obtained a permit for a protest in July 2017. The larger Unite the Right Rally was scheduled for August 2017. City authorities encouraged persons to vacate the downtown area; to not dignify the events with attention (Heaphy, 2017). Yet many citizens were drawn to these events, like moths gather to a bright yet dangerous light, due to alarm regarding the anticipated racist displays. Many persons felt called to make a counter witness against hateful ideology. The charged environment made it difficult to decide, individually or corporately, on what to do. There was a divide in the faith leader response between those who promoted prayer and witness and those who felt called to more direct resistance action (Rev Will Peyton, personal communication, June 25, 2018). Diverse faith congregations anticipated the rallies and organized to stay away, or joined together to witness in some manner to belief in God’s love for all persons. Ultimately, organized prayers were coordinated through the Charlot- tesville Clergy Collective (2018). Each Saturday of the summer, a different congregation held vigil at the statues. Hour after hour, different faith communities gathered prayerfully at the statues and then dispersed. This author participated in this with her faith community, Charlottesville Friends Meeting, at the Stonewall Jackson statue. The week before the August 12 Saturday Unite the Right Rally, there was a prayer service open to the public each night of the week at a different Charlottesville church. On Friday, the night before the rally, a standing room only interfaith crowd gathered at St Paul’s Memorial Episcopal Church. Rev. Traci Blackmon, Executive Director of Justice & Witness Ministries for the United Church of Christ, gave a rousing sermon about David cutting off Goliath’s head. She alluded to the unfinished work of the civil rights movement, suggesting analogously, that the task now is to cut off the head of the giant of white supremacy.
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